


Square A5: Constructed

by dracusfyre



Series: Tony Stark Bingo Challenge [20]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Constructed Reality, Fix-It, Gen, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Soul Stone (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-19 12:19:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16534442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dracusfyre/pseuds/dracusfyre
Summary: The Soul Stone tries to tempt Tony with visions of a future he could have with a snap of his fingers.





	Square A5: Constructed

“Hey, Mr. Stark,” Peter said cheerfully, vaulting over the couch and landing lightly when he saw the baby was sleeping.  “How’s Morgan today?” He whispered.

“Out like a light, so you don’t have to whisper.” Tony was rocking Morgan’s bouncy chair idly with his foot while he was working on his tablet.  “What’s up, kid?”

“Nothing.  Finished all my homework so I wanted to see if you needed a babysitter.”

Tony glanced up at him in surprise.  “Yeah, you’re volunteering?”

Peter shrugged and scratched the back of his head. “Sure, I mean, Morgan’s a great baby, and I don’t have anything else to-”

“I’m not letting you mess around in my lab without me.”

At that, Peter made a face but he made an impressive rally.  “Of course not,” he said virtuously.  “I wouldn’t think of it.”

Tony smiled but pretended to believe him.  “Well, if you still want to babysit, I’ll ask Pepper if she’d like a night off. She should be home soon.”

“Awesome.” Peter grabbed the half-empty box of Cheerios that had been part of Morgan’s afternoon snack and pulled his laptop out of his backpack.  “I finished the schematics for my science fair project, wanna “Of course!” Tony set his tablet to the side and moved closer to Peter so he could look over his shoulder.

“Hey guys,” Pepper called out as she stepped off the elevator, already stepping out of her high heels as she put her briefcase down on the kitchen table and shrugged out of her suit jacket. “How is everyone?”  She came over to the couch and kissed Tony on the temple and ruffled Peter’s hair, her smile going soft when she saw Morgan still sleeping. “Did he have a good day today?”

“You know, the usual. Eating, pooping, burping, helping me create the Unified Field Theory.” Tony tilted his head back for another kiss, this time on the lips.  “Pete was just showing me his project for the science fair.”   

 

_“No,” Tony said squeezing his eyes tight.  “It’s not like this.”_

_**it could be**_

           

Tony was already half awake when he heard Morgan cry out, feet already heading for the floor before he consciously thought about it. Pepper stirred, but went back to sleep with a sigh when Tony put a hand on her arm and whispered “I got him, sweetie.”

He padded to Morgan’s room on autopilot, not even needing to turn on a light, and found him standing up, holding on to the edge of the crib.  In the light of the nightlight, Tony could see a couple of tears in Morgan’s eyes, and his heart broke a little when Morgan sobbed out a “Daaddeeee” and held his arms up.

“I got you, sweetheart,” Tony said as he picked him up, putting a hand on his back as Morgan burrowed his head into Tony’s neck.  “Did you have a bad dream?  It’s ok, Daddy’s here.” Morgan’s hiccupping sobs tapered off as Tony sat down in the rocking chair and rocked them, patting his back gently and making shushing noises.  After a few minutes, Tony could feel the telltale limpness of Morgan falling back asleep, one hand still curled on the collar of Tony’s sleep shirt.  He smiled and brushed a thumb over that tiny hand with its tiny little fingers, rocking for a while more as he breathed in eau de toddler, milk and soap and a faint whiff of pee from a dirty diaper.  

After a while Tony felt himself getting sleepy again, so he levered himself to his feet without dislodging Morgan and gently lay him back in the crib, propping his Spiderman stuffy up against the side so that he would see it when he woke up.  He pressed a gentle kiss to Morgan’s soft hair and then climbed back into bed with Pepper.

 

_Longing was a knife in Tony’s chest. “Stop,” he forced himself to say. “Please… I just want it to be like it was.”_

**_why?_ **

****

Tony gasped and opened his eyes at the honest curiosity in the question.  Instead of his room he was in the middle of what looked like a vast, empty plain; there was water, but not even enough to soak through his shoes, and the sky, from horizon to horizon, was the uniform orange-pink of sunset.  A few feet away Peter was hovering, knees up and arms wrapped around them, head tilted as he studied Tony.  Tony approached and reached out to touch him, but he knew it wasn’t really the him, because he was wearing a look of polite but vague inquiry, an expression Peter had probably never made in his entire life.  “Because – because it’s not real,” Tony said, letting his hand drop back to his side. “I don’t want to live the rest of my life in the Matrix, I just want to undo what that giant purple potato did to my planet!”

“But you can make it better,” Not-Peter said.  “Why not make it exactly how you want it?”

“Because that’s not up to me,” Tony said. He scrubbed a hand over his face.  “I can’t just do whatever I want, that’s not fair.

“Fair,” Not-Peter repeated.  He reached down and trailed his fingers through the thin layer of water, causing ripples that eventually eddied around Tony’s feet.  “Very well.  You wish us to make it fair?”

“No,” Tony said hurriedly, scared to imagine what an Infinity Stone might think was “fair.” “Just…” Shit, he hadn’t thought this far when he had grabbed the gauntlet to undo what Thanos had done.  Where did he start the ‘fix’? Now he had the whole “kill Hitler” paradox to contend with.  Stop him before he got the first Infinity Stone?  By then, he had already destroyed so many planets and civilizations, Gamora’s and Nebula’s and Drax’s.   Did he fix the Titan homeworld, so that Thanos never conceived his crazy ideas?  What else would that change?

Not-Peter was still looking at him expectantly, and Tony got the feeling that he/it would never get impatient, that it probably didn’t even have a concept of time. Tony could stand here, indecisive, for as long as it took and Not-Peter would always be looking at him like that.

“Stop Thanos from getting the first Infinity Stone,” Tony finally said.  “Give us a chance to stop him on Xandar. But,” he said with a sudden fear, “we have to remember.”

“Who?”

“Everyone who has ever wielded an Infinity Stone. Except Thanos,” he added grimly.  “I don’t want that sonofabitch to see us coming.”

\------------------

In a ship full of people still reeling from the destruction of Asgard, Loki s bent over a desk, writing seemingly endless lists of people, resources and required items.  Suddenly he inhales sharply and straightens, a hand coming up as if to touch his throat before it drops down to the table again. He stands, looking around him as if surprised by his surroundings, then he strides through the corridor of the ships until he finds Thor with Valkyrie, studying star maps and plotting a course to Earth.

“Thor,” he says, and something in his voice makes Thor straighten with alarm.  “I have to talk to you about Thanos.”

\------------------

On Earth, Tony wakes up in his bed, exhaling with relief when he rolls over and sees Pepper sleeping peacefully. He climbs out of bed, pulling on a robe as he goes to the kitchen and starts the coffee pot.  The sun would be coming up soon, and as soon as it did, he had a lot of calls to make.

\------------------

Stephen Strange wakes up at the same time and smiles at the ceiling.  “I knew you could do it, Tony,” he says as he climbs out of bed to wake Wong.

\------------------

And in London, during a working lunch with Dr. Selvig and a potential research donor, Jane Foster stops in the middle of a sentence and stares at Dr. Selvig with a disbelieving look on her face.  “What in the _hell_ is going on?” she demands.


End file.
